SUPER MICRO Computer user manual Overview of the LSI 2108/2208 SAS Controller

Chapter 1: Introduction to the LSI MegaRAID Software Utility

Chapter 1

Introduction

After you have installed hardware components, you must first configure LSI 2108/2208 SAS MegaRAID settings before you install an operating system and other software drivers.

Note: If you do not wish to configure LSI Software RAID settings, proceed with the OS installation. For OS installation instructions, refer to related documents posted on our website at www.supermicro.com.

1-1 Overview of the LSI 2108/2208 SAS Controller

The LSI 2108/2208 SAS Controller, based on the RoC (RAID-on-Chip) architecture, integrates the most advanced SAS and PCI-Express Generation 2 (LSI2108) or Generation 3 (LSI2208) technologies to offer a cost-effective RAID management tool for high-end workstations or servers that require high system availability and data security. By providing a next generation high bandwidth storage capability, the LSI 2108/2208 Controller excels in I/O transaction and data transferring, and is ideal for video streaming and data processing applications.

In addition, the LSI 2108/2208 controller is SAS2 or SATA3 based and supports up to eight ports with transfer rates of up to 6.0 Gb/s (SAS/SATA infrastructure). By integrating SAS, SATA and hardware RAID support, the LSI 2108/2208 controller offers small-to-mid sized data centers exceptional flexibility to deliver advanced data protection and system performance using high-performance SAS, SATA or solid state devices.

Features of the LSI 2108/2208 Controller

The LSI SAS 2108 Controller supports the following features:

Integrated RAID

•RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10 supported

•RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 50 and RAID 60 supported

PCI-Express to 8-Port SAS/SATA Controller with data rates of 8.0 GT/s for PCI-E 3.0 and 5.0 GT/s for PCI-E 2.0

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